Jury convicts driver in death of bicyclist

CANON CITY — A jury found a local woman guilty of three charges Tuesday following about eight hours of deliberations over two days.

Natalie D. Habig, 35, of Canon City, was found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident involving death, criminally negligent homicide and careless driving causing death. The jury of seven women and five men opted for the misdemeanor traffic conviction of careless driving instead of the felony vehicular homicide charge filed against her.

Habig hit bicyclist Kyle Keefe, 49, of Canon City, Sept. 25, 2012, as she made a right turn onto Leslie Lane from Field Avenue. Keefe, who suffered massive head injuries, was pronounced dead a day later at a Colorado Springs hospital.

“I am relieved. It is a fine verdict,” said District Attorney Thom LeDoux, who prosecuted the case with the help of Deputy District Attorney Sarah Oszczakiewicz.

The trial was marked by repeated viewings of a security video from a storage shed business that captured the accident. Many of Keefe’s family members and friends were present for the trial and some of them wept when the video was shown.